


How to-s:

by solitariusvirtus



Category: Essay - Fandom, Guide - Fandom, Literary Criticism - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Gen, Guide to writing, Offer help, record
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 13:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18500140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solitariusvirtus/pseuds/solitariusvirtus
Summary: Okay, so let’s be real here. The most annoying answer an author can give to the question of “How do these ideas come to you?” is “Inspiration.” Everyone, their grandmother and the grandmother’s dog have inspiration. Even people who are not so inclined to put every little bit of it on paper. Plus, inspiration is a bit like a candle, it flickers until a gust of wind knocks it out.In other words, it has limited use. In fact, it is damn near useless if you actually want to write more than one scene. And to be fair, you may declare yourself pleased with just one scene.All is not lost though. Herein, some solutions will be discussed. Quick and dirty guide.





	1. Overview

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aurora_Martell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurora_Martell/gifts).



Overview:

I. Transform your inspiration into a sweet, sweet sustainable plot:

Okay, so let’s be real here. The most annoying answer an author can give to the question of “How do these ideas come to you?” is “Inspiration.” Everyone, their grandmother and the grandmother’s dog have inspiration. Even people who are not so inclined to put every little bit of it on paper. Plus, inspiration is a bit like a candle, it flickers until a gust of wind knocks it out.

In other words, it has limited use. In fact, it is damn near useless if you actually want to write more than one scene. And to be fair, you may declare yourself pleased with just one scene.

However, if you’re like me (and most other writers) you want a complete story. You want to _say_ something (it will be profound and deep and meaningful and it will have forever changed the reader). But with only a few scenes in mind and a confused, hazy understanding of the potential story that goal may seem rather far off,

Fear not, though; this is absolutely normal. Everyone goes through it. And the good news is if you’re willing to put in some (okay, I mean a lot) of effort, you’ll get out of these woods and find yourself with a story for it. There is even a recipe one can follow to great success (indeed, dear reader, both talent and technique matter), put into wonderfully coherent form by John Truby in “ ** _The Anatomy of Story_** ”.

It all starts, like the best things do, with a **wish**.

 **Step 1** : Compose a wishlist. At this point you will take all you’ve ever wanted to write about and create as long a list as you can. Nothing is off-limits. Include all ideas you wish to explore.

Attempt to group your ideas into clusters of what might actually work together and isolate the ones which you feel might contribute to a coherent story.

This is one of my wishlists:

  * Medieval setting
  * Hero
  * Prophecy
  * Faith
  * War
  * Societal change
  * Mechanism of change
  * Family
  * Motherhood
  * Fatherhood
  * Nuclear family
  * Magic
  * Middle ages
  * Human interaction
  * “You can’t change people. You can’t make them respect you, you can’t make them care about you and you can’t make them love you. People are honest in their actions. Let what they do tell you who they are.”
  * “Nobility is upheld by responsibility, not by freedoms.”
  * Wisdom of the old
  * “We live in the carcass of our forefathers and while the foundations endure, the floorboards might need changing every now and again.” 
  * “It’s best you know the use of that fence before you start removing boards”
  * Good vs evil
  * Shades of grey
  * Morality
  * Nietzschenian Ubermensch
  * Total rest of world
  * Horror
  * Machine civilisation
  * End of humanity
  * Apocalypse
  * Vampirism
  * Folklore
  * Fairy tales
  * Lady
  * Etiquette
  * Drama
  * Emotional punch
  * Dualism (twins) – doppelganger
  * Fallen warrior
  * Death
  * Burial mounds
  * Mortuary protocol, burial traditions
  * December-May romance
  * Magic as science
  * Magic as knowledge



**Step 2** : Turn your attention to a premise list. A premise is a one sentence summary of the story you wish to tell: a basic outline if you will. It should include the main character, central conflict and raise a few questions.

Examples:

  * An exiled prince attempts to regain his throne using the daughter of the man who murdered his father.
  * A renowned hero goes in search of the gods hoping to save his dying world, only to learn that all of them have abandoned their posts so as to escape.
  * Foreseeing the end of the world close at hand, a wizard tasks a young couple with ensuring the survival of humanity.



Depending on the scope of your story, you will stick to one or more of these premises. Keep in mind that for a first time it might be better to work on one single premise, so as to better get the hang of it.

 **Step 3** : Look at the downside of your plots. Always. Ask yourself the question, what could possibly go wrong here? What are some weaknesses I can address and how may I arrange it all in order to make sense.

It need not be all in perfect logical order. For example, if your story contains the use of magic, what you should concern yourself with is establishing a few ground rules by which magic works in your world. Give it limits and take care not to cross them in the future. Do your best to answer the raised questions satisfactorily.

 **Step 4** : Choose your design principles. This section should reveal the mode by which your story is organised. That is to say, “how” precisely does the narrative unfold itself, in a technical sense. Are we talking about a journey (a la Lord of The Rings – a literal journey undertaken by the character(s)) or is it more like a time cycle (a story unfolding along the length of a day). It is the driving metaphor of your story, if you will.

 **Step 5** : Select the best character for the story you wish to tell. Not every character can be the hero, not every hero fits every story. Look into what you are trying to say and imbue such characteristics in your protagonist that he/she may carry your story off as you wish to tell it.

For example, Rambo would not work in the Biblical story of Moses, as he’d be apt to shoot the Egyptians down rather than put himself in the hands of God.

 **Step 6** : Outline the main conflict. Which are the sides (protagonist vs main villain) and why are they fighting.

It is often said that a hero is only as good as the villain opposing him. This is very true. In order for such to work, however, the hero and the villain must in great part reflect each other. Remember, they are two sides of a coin and what separates them in the end is method, not goal.

 **Step 7** : Outline the basic action. What is it that sets the story into motion? Perhaps the hero/-ine overhears something, perhaps they are sent on a mission or they could very well fulfil the wish of a dying family member/friend.

 **Step 8** : Set up the character changes you wish to see unfold. In any story, the hero and his friends complete arcs. This means that we begin from point A and move slowly to point B. Between these two points stays the catalyst of change. In days of yore, the change was fairly simplistic; think fairy tale – hero is weak  (A)– undergoes journey – hero is strong (B).

A modern audience will rarely be satisfied with only this. For this reason, it might help to hamper your hero with flaws which may or may not (as the case may be) find solution by the end of the narrative. What you want to do is make certain these flaws have some actual power behind them – by which one means they should affect the hero in a negative way and the people around the hero likewise.

For example, a stubborn character may keep so strongly to their beliefs that they cut themselves off from the family, as a result being isolated, but in equal measure their stubbornness may end in them hurting one of their friends because they insisted on a certain set of actions – e.g. walking through the woods late at night when there’s a criminal of the loose. Such being the case, by the end of the story this character would be successful if he/she learned that a rigid adherence to a set of beliefs may not best serve them – furthermore they should admit to this (not in words necessarily), turn around and end such behaviours after it becomes apparent they harm those around them.

On the other hand, the hero may well learn nothing at all and continue in the same vein – with the consequences being made clear to the reader (complete cut off from family, loss of friends, isolation and perhaps even death).

 **Step 9** : Give your character a moral choice. This should be between two equally appealing/ unappealing options. If you grant them a false choice (e.g. kill the villain vs. lose all his/her hair) your audience may just turn away from your story in disgust.

Examples of appropriate moral choices: maintain a good romantic relationship vs be an outcast from your home/society; have the reins of power vs. live a life of comfort and leisure; obtain fame and become an undying legend at the cost o your own life vs. be a good leader, live in happiness, but be remembered only by a few generations until your are forgotten.

 **Step 10** : Gauge the audience appeal. Lay out why people would be interested in your story.

 

###### Work Cited:

Truby, John. 2007. _The anatomy of story: 22 steps to becoming a master storyteller_. New York: Faber and Faber.


	2. A Bit on Characters

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may have heard, and not without some frequency, that a character makes the story. And if you allow yourself to think about ... it makes no sense. In this world there are lies, damned lies and, in the view of B. Disraeli, statistics. Now as to whether the latter is more heinous than the former is in itself a worthy discussion. But we won't address the matter here. Let us turn our attention then to the second category, the damned lies, as it were. Out of all these misconstructions, it is the supreme importance of the character that will hold our interest in the following discourse.

You can create the most complex character sheet one ever could devise and it would still be a useless exercise unless the character itself can be in seamless manner integrated into the story - which is to say, it would be better still to work on both story and characters. You see, while in analytical texts separating one from the other offers yet another subject of study, for the writer these should not be two distinct items. Your character springs from the world he/she is in, just as much as the world springs from the character.

Ideally, as mentioned previously, the world informs the character. To that end, the diligent writer will have taken the time to familiarise him-/herself with at least the most rudimentary workings of their world. Allow an example: how many times have you read a story with a medieval setting but _**disgustingly modern**_ characters and how much have those perversions of the truth coloured your perception? You see, us poor humans are apt to fail in many regards, not the least of which is our tendency to accept what we like as fact. And to add insult to injury our brain will not relinquish its convictions easily even when faced with sound logical argument. Quite beyond that, however, if you would write about a certain setting, do your best to be as informed as you can.

How? Now here are several ways to proceed: read literature of that time period, if available, if not read literature about said time period. If we are discussing science fiction work, your best bet is to read the classics (Asimov, Wells, Herbert and the like). Of course, it would also help to keep up to date with the various theories and plots one meets in the genre, as well as the more common notions used. All this toes back to your character insofar as it dictates where he/she stands in the beginning of your story and the likely paths to travel. Imagine, if you would, a space-faring civilisation of cyborgs on the verge of becoming a full machine civilisation (perhaps NY uploading themselves and so forth). Say you choose a protagonist from within this sphere. What paths can you travel? I've selected two examples below.

1\. Humanising path - if our protagonist begins the tale with the full knowledge of the non-bilogical's superiority in all aspects of practicality, why not oppose to this rigid, programmed order the chaos of humanity and it's emotional entanglements. Since our hero is a cyborg (thereby still somewhat human) have him interact with "primitives" or perhaps " highly conservative" elements of the species - what is the result? Which worldview wins?

2\. Now should your cyborgs face a strong, advanced enemy or some manner of cataclysm, then upgrading the species would make sense. Perhaps of a more introspective bent, such a plot would centre around the theme of sacrifice and how much of it is warranted? After all, who is to say some would not wish to go out with dignity, as it were, instead of being uploaded in some simulation of reality? On the other hand, if these people do live in a simulation yet cannot tell the difference, does it matter?

As within, so without. Characters allow for variation in exploratory experiments. Not all turmoils need to be expressed in terms if inner turmoil and battles of the mind. Some can be made clear by bringing your character into conflict with some other creation of a different view or of different methods. In so doing, you allow your character to establish himself into a certain mentality which then guides their actions.

Speaking of conflicts, a few considerations regarding the villain of the piece are also relevant. Improperly called a villain, the antagonist need not be polar opposite of the protagonist. Of course, it often is the case that this opponent is of inferior moral quality, but one can make the argument that the winner is the holder of the truth by default, ergo truth itself is relative to perspective (which is a perfectly sensible conclusion to draw as human truth is certainly of a mutable kind - a lower rate of success will be met with natural truths, however). Keep in mind that the stronger, cleverer, more compelling and qualitatively high your antagonists, the greater the victory of your protagonist.

That is to say, to defeat a cartoon villain is one thing - it's quite easy to hate the unrelentingly evil of the villain, his moral defectiveness and his lack of heat. By comparison, the hero, already in possession of higher moral standards, one presumes, a kind heart and the willingness to do good, has already won. Now this works very well in children's stories as their understanding is somewhat limited by age and perspective. For an adult audience, shades of grey are encouraged. Sometimes the hero is wrong and at times the villain is correct. Acknowledge that this is an exchange of sorts; both hero and villain fight for the same goal (ideally) and that one can learn from the other. Comparatively, the morally perfect hero has nothing to learn, same as the bleakest of villains.

All characters, however, should be, as Aaron Ehasz puts it: dimensional, fascinating, compelling and believable. Right about now you may be wandering what happened to sympathetic, likable or relatable. Those three qualities should not be your objective when writing any character. If for example I set a ball of fur as my protagonist, just how relatable is that to you as a human? I imagine not at all, given none of us have the look of cousin It about us. Regarding sympathy, you do not want to more your reader too deeply into any one character's troubles. The reader much like the student may prefer one scholar over another, yet must remember that all works can teach us something, even if it is a negative lesson. As for likeability, that is a false God? How many of you think Walter White (Breaking Bad) is a likeable man? How many of you perceived the characters of Wuthering Heights to be likeable? I'm willing to bet not many.

To tackle the first of the necessary characteristics of a well a constructed character, let us give a look to dimensionality. What does it mean to be dimensional? Usually, it refers to the capacity of your character to modulate their responses to the world around them - thereby forming the dimensions of their character. This is tide with their personality and will be discusses further at some other point. Chiefly, however, think of dimensionality as the number of responses assigned to a certain situation, out of which the character will be bared from some and encouraged to other dependent on habitual behavioural constellations.

Fascination stands as our second component. I take it to mean the character should leave the reader with some question, some unexplained little thing which brings back the reader for a more thorough look. That is to say, do not explain everything. Let the reader form his opinion from time to time on some matters. Here the discussion necessarily bleeds into the compelling nature of your character. Assuming the first is accomplished the other will come naturally enough. Your character will be interesting, so to speak.

Last but not least is believe-ability. Just as your world has limits, so does your character. Do not cross these limits arbitrarily and strive to have your hero stumble over them every once in a while, when the situation calls for it. Keep in mind the assigned personality and work from there. These would be some general guidelines regarding character writing. Allow that types of characters have not been discussed, nor have their uses. This will be done at a later date, as the current piece is only meant to be an introduction of sorts.

 

 

 

 

 

###### Links:

[A Quick Guide to Great Characters](https://popgeeks.com/quick-guide-great-characters/)


	3. Short collection of tips on Introductory chapters

1\. Give a feel of the setting and/or character(s) the reader will follow  
  
  
2\. If possible allow the reader a glimpse of the "plot" - now you can set up a twist here or you can give the genuine deal...whichever you feel is better  
  
  
3\. Describe, describe and then describe some more; you can do fun things with this, be it taking from the foreshadowing of Shakespeare, the dramatic overlaying of nature's outbursts to human disposition (think _Jane Eyre)_ or simply setting the mood ( _Wuthering Heights_ )  
  
  
4\. Try different techniques. You are not required to start with the character or the place. You could start with a metaphor, a verisimilitude or even a short commentary, as the well-loved, armchair moralist narrator would ( _Vanity Fair_ )  
  
  
5\. Stakes and conflict - give us the barest minimum on that. You want invested readers, reel us in.


End file.
